Celebrating Friendship

Good morning all. My card today is a clean and simple card that uses a combination of the new clear stamps. I love the way that these new stamps can be mixed up. The lanterns are from Chinese Lanterns and the sentiment is from Best Relative Ever.

I used Memento black ink to stamp the lanterns and coloured with alcohol pens. It's not easy to see on the photograph but I drew around the edge of the lanterns with a light grey to give them dimension. The words are stamped individually and the beauty of clear stamps is that the can be lined up so easily. I matted onto black card and fixed to a white base card. I have a special friend who is having nearing the end of her chemotherapy and this card will be heading over to her in a few weeks as I want to hand deliver it but I've been full of cold and have stayed away as not to pass it to her. Have a good Wednesday. Debbie

Enjoying the Sunset

I have been so excited about the new clear stamps for a while now. I'm sure when people start to play with the new designs they will love them as much as the Design Team do.

My card was created by stamping the Crane first onto white card and then make a mask to cover it. I then cut it with a nestability and taped the shape to the cut to frame so that when I used the distress ink it would leave a white border. I used Spiced Marmalade, Mustard Seed for the sunset and Stormy Sky for the water. I cut a larger black frame to mount on. I decided to keep the base card simple so that the main image popped out from the background so I only stamped with black ink. There's lots more inspiration to follow from the team. Enjoy. Debbie

A good week

I'm sure we've all had the feeling that your week seems to go from bad to worse and you worry where it's going to end. Well my week has been the total opposite, very rare so I wanted to record it. Sunday things went very well with the xmas card production line. Monday, I found a large amount of grey and brown fabric at our local Hospice shop for our schools Xmas production. Tuesday, I've been invited to accompany the teachers and children to watched Oliver at Newcastle as I'll be making the costumes.

Also my DD got a part time job which is really going to help fund the Masters Degree she's doing this year. I can't believe how many interviews she's attended and how many young people are applying for the same job. Wednesday, I got a phone call from the garage where we've ordered our new car. I've waited so patiently for 12 weeks. We decided that we didn't need our large petrol guzzler as we are not travelling half way down the country with DD's belongings any more. Thursday, I've been making felt flowers and was pleased with my efforts.

Friday, I run an after school club that teachs the children cookery skills (great fun) and I have been asked to attend a yearly conference in Durham. I'm looking forward to meeting lots of other people who see the benefit of teaching young children such a valuable life skill. Saturday, I go to collect our (my) new car. Hope it's a good Saturday for everyone Debbie.

Full steam ahead for Christmas

My post today is a couple of cards I made a few weeks ago with stamps from the The Gift of Christmas. I wanted to create backgrounds using Shaded Lilac and Picked Raspberry Distress Inks.

I stamped the mistletoe snowflake with the raspberry and then used the same colour ink to colour the rest of the card. I then stamped the Merry Christmas sentiment onto white card and cut it with a nestability label. I left the die in place and inked so to leave a white border. I repeated on a larger label to mount onto. I added a gem to the centre of the snowflakes and finished by putting onto a white card. The Lilac card is done in the same way. I called this post full steam ahead as I've been busy making cards as the girls I work with have been asking for cards already so I have had a production line going through the holidays. I'll try and take a couple of photographs to show the cards I've made. Happy stamping Debbie

The BIG secret is out

An enormous sigh of relief was let out at 1.00pm today as I had been keeping a secret that I have been so excited about for a while. If you'd like more information about the secret being let out, pop over to the Chocolate Baroque Design Team blog and take a look. There are a few give aways there as well. Good Luck!!! Debbie

Party Time

Everybody enjoys a good party and this morning over at Chocolate Baroque they will be tweeking the details to make it a great one. Pop over to here and find out the details of this online event. Hope you can be there. Debbie

Beautiful Baubles

My card is from the newly released set of stamps from Chocolate Baroque called Pears and Baubles.

Glenda posted the picture of it on the Design Team blog so I thought I would give you the details of what I used.

The cards are made from Kraft card and are 6 x 6 size. I used Versamark and my new favourite embossing powders, Red Glitz, Opaque Bright White and Nice Ice Blue. I love the way these powders really 'pop' when heated. As Glenda says on the DT blog they are ideal for batch card making with them looking very elegant. I underlined the sentiment with a white pen. I've made more cards from this stamp set and will post the photographs over the next day or so. Happy stamping Debbie